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Braun, Gallardo honored as Silver Sluggers

Braun, Gallardo honored as Silver Sluggers

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By Adam McCalvy
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MLB.com |

MILWAUKEE -- Ryan Braun told us that it would go this way. He said so in early August, when he was coming off a July that saw him hit an even .200 and left his batting average entering the Brewers' July 31 game at .273, 35 points off his career average entering 2010. He owned a .325 on-base percentage that day, 38 points off his career mark, and a .459 slugging percentage, 92 points off.

"If I finish strong," he said a few days later, "there's no reason I can't have just as good a season as I had last year. There's no reason I can't have my best season if I finish great this year."

In the end, he didn't have his best season, but he did have another good one. Braun batted .364 over his final 55 games with nine home runs and 35 RBIs and finished the year batting .304 with 25 home runs and 104 batted in. He boosted his on-base percentage up to .365, and his slugging percentage to .501.

The reward came Thursday, when Braun was honored with his third consecutive Silver Slugger Award as one of the National League's top hitting outfielders. Braun is only the second player in franchise history to win the award three years in a row -- sweet-swinging first baseman Cecil Cooper won it from 1980-82. Robin Yount also took home the award three times, but not in consecutive seasons.

For the first time in nearly three decades, Braun was not the Brewers' only winner. Right-hander Yovani Gallardo won his first career Silver Slugger Award as the NL's top hitting pitcher. He batted .254 and led pitchers with four home runs and 10 RBIs. No other pitcher belted more than one homer in 2010.

"It always feels good, especially as a pitcher, in situations where you can help yourself out," Gallardo told reporters in San Diego on May 1, after he limited the Padres to one run in eight innings and belted a difference-making homer in a 2-1 Brewers win.

This season marks the first time that the Brewers had multiple Silver Sluggers since 1982, when Cooper and shortstop Robin Yount were honored.

NL SILVER SLUGGER WINNERS

The National League winners of the Silver Slugger Awards, with the number each has won in his career.

"Whenever you're recognized for doing something at the end of the year, it's rewarding," Braun said this week. "It's nice to know that the hard work you put in has been noticed, and it's paid off."

He called the Silver Slugger Award "a tremendous honor."

Braun's already enjoyed more than a few honors in his career. He has yet to amass four years of Major League service time, but he already owns an NL Rookie of the Year Award and three consecutive All-Star Game starts in addition to his trio of Silver Slugger Awards.

But 2010 included the first prolonged slump of his career. Braun has regularly received treatment for a stiff back during his career, and his power was sapped for a period in August after he injured his wrist clipping Astros first baseman Brett Wallace, but Braun will still say little about whether physical problems contributed to his midseason production drought.

All he will say now is that he's happy he got through it.

"I can't ever go back into the past and chance what happened, and focusing too much on the future doesn't work, either," he said. "You focus on what you can control in the moment. Try to accomplish as much as possible every day. I've always recognized that, and I think it's been a big part of my career.

"I dealt with a lot of adversity this year and more failure than I ever have in the past. That motto held true: I focused on what I could control, and at the end of the day I think I had a successful year."

That's what he said just this week. Back in August, Braun saw it coming.

"At the end of this year, I'll look back and realize that this was a tremendous learning experience," he said back then. "Hopefully, I'll become a better player and a better person because of it. But when you're going through it, it's definitely not fun."

Adam McCalvy is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Brew Beat, and follow him on Twitter at @AdamMcCalvy. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.